Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 9:48 pm Post subject: How can you improve your dancing skills as a guy in a club?

Hi people,

I am taking the beginner's salsa class, and Sharon keeps saying "come out to the social" or to the club, or whatever. And I really do want to. But, whenever I go to a salsa club, after the initial lesson, I don't know what to do. I am a guy, and I should be leading, but if I am only a beginner, then I only know a few moves. It gets boring, especially for the girl. Furthermore, girls can just pick up a good dancer to dance with, and they will learn just by the act of following, but the same is not true for a guy. Or, am I missing something?

Having said all this, it seems pointless to me to go to a club/social. I am not going to improve my dancing skills because nobody is coaching me, and it's not like the girl is enjoying herself either, doing the same basic moves over and over again... So far, I know the curriculum from the beginners classes, plus a few other moves that I learned on the side.

The same question goes for other dances, only I know even fewer moves (cha-cha, bachata, merangue...).

It is true that at the beginning you don't have a lot of moves to work with. ONe thing that helped me is to go to the outing classes because there is always new moves that the instructors teach there so in addition to all the stuff you learn in your classes you get new moves to work on out dancing.

If you come out to the socials you'll find that everyone is very friendly, many are beginners, and those who are not remember what it's like to be a beginner.

You're supposed to do 2-3 hours of practice for every 1 hour of class if you want to retain the information and girls can always tell in class who the guys are who go out and who don't bother.

Going out will not only help you remember the moves you've learned but will also help you pick up the new moves faster at your next class. You'll also meet some great people and have a lot of fun.

At the outings you do also get new moves to learn on top of what you're learning in class so it's a chance to get even more turn patterns under your belt... but it's a catch-22. If you don't go out and practice the new moves you'll forget them!